LG councils should think outside the box to grow economy- Adewale

Following the recent Supreme Court which granted financial autonomy to the 774 local government areas, the Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State, Ayodele Adewale, said it has become imperative for the council areas to grow the local economy to improve the living conditions at the grassroots. In this interview on a Channels TV programme monitored by David Lawani, the former Chairman of Amuwo-Odofin LGA of the state, they also said the pedigree of personalities who seek election into council areas was crucial to the ability to achieve such economic growth, among other sundry matters

Do you think the judgement by the Supreme Court will give LGAs autonomy in the real sense of it?

Well, it is a landmark judgement. It is very historic and will help the local governments to grow by their peculiarities and capacities. However capacity still needs to be improved for the funds to be spent judiciously. I can liken it to the proverbial talents that were given by a master to three of his servants at different ratios as recorded in the Bible. Some of them increased it well, while some used it exponentially, yet some just kept it as it was. So, for me, it is not just the direct allocation that matters. Still, one has to account for the money appropriately in terms of seeing it through the deliverables such as infrastructural provisions, and creating more robust opportunities that will transform the local economy for production and growth. I will be expecting that that would help to appreciate the President and the Minister of Justice as well as the judiciary for creating this avenue for local governments to have direct fund streams in their domains.

How does this affect the relationship between the state governors and the management of the LGAs after this judgement?

There are two realities. The first is the fund and the second is how local government officials are elected into office. But, for me, it depends primarily on their constituencies and electorates. They are ready to do more by coming to elect people who have the capacity. The intriguing part of the local government administration is that whoever is elected into office lives among the people. The people already know who you are; they know what you can do. So, the people have been given the power to make and unmake the future as the case is. Also, civil society has a lot to do because of its apathy at the grassroots before now. Civil society organisations must come to help to mirror the character and the personality of whoever intends to contest the election and gain power.  I often hear people say that the easiest way to deceive anybody in the political interface is those people who are just coming to power; to tell you, I can do all of that. They have not been able to aggregate and judge them, but for those who are in power, you can immediately see what they can do within the little time they have spent in office. That will determine whether the people will renew their mandate or not.

What should we expect as a people now that LGAs have their funds?

They have never been invisible. They have always been there. It is the consciousness of the people that has not been pinned to their existence. I have been in local government since 1978 in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area and I am still there. I have never for one day thought of living outside of the local government. It is about the people. The local government is always there. The people transverse the local government council; and because some of the local governments are not adding value to the lives of the people and the existence of their constituents, they do not have any reason to move towards them. But now that the funds have come and it will be going directly to them I believe they can help the people. Bringing them closer to the local government is a responsibility of the civil society and the media. The more the media tend to showcase the ability and inability of the LGAs and the more the civil society tends to organise various fora for people to serve and discuss the happenings in the local area, the better for those communities. Take for instance, an agro community, whereby all they have is just landmass and they are getting allocations from the Federal Government, one would think that the local government will concentrate more on agriculture and infrastructure because from agricultural engagement they can increase their avenues of generating more funds. They should not rely on whatever they get from the state government and the Federal Government but think out of the box on how to grow the local economy. How do we improve the security of lives and property? How do we provide opportunities? I think that local governments that are domiciled within the cosmopolitan areas will be focusing more on technology and sustaining the infrastructure they have within the jurisdiction, while local government councils that are also bordering seas and rivers will be concentrating more on the ocean economy to provide more opportunities and amenities and grow whatever resources they have been able to amass. But there must be a common denominator and the common denominator is first line charge. For instance, before you embark on using the money for whatever adventure, you must plug in the salaries of staff and teachers, especially primary school teachers because that is the sole responsibility of the local government. You must also be able to pay pensions because, in the past, a lot of local government chairmen didn’t focus on that. They would rather focus on gigantic projects that would not have any direct impact on their people while some of them would go for huge loans, whereas the loans are tied to their allocations. So as the money is coming, the banks would be taking the funds and at the end of the day, there would be nothing on the ground.

What are those avenues available for revenues apart from taxes?

First, you must look at the peculiarity of the local government area. I used Amuwo Odofin as a case study. I came in in 2008 and served for two terms and I left in 2014. Mind you, I have a background in civil society. I have been privileged to sit with the founding fathers of this country such as Chief Anthony Enahoro. I was a mobilisation secretary with the PRONACO group, while he was the head. I was a secretary at the ‘Citizens Forum’ while Prof Wole Soyinka was the chairman. I was secretary to Dr Beko Ransom-Kuti when he was chairman of the June 12 Coalition. So, we have discussed how we want the Nigerian state to look like and how we want it to be. I came into the local government with my programme. I partnered with the NYSC, military, and retirees in my community. I met one doctor but I increased it to 56 doctors. I met eight nurses, but I left about 60 nurses. I engaged over 1,000 non-pensionable workers from educational consultants who came to help me teach modules that are required for primary education to some set of corps members. I had the highest corps members’ deployment in Nigeria. Every corps member circle has about 200 members. I deployed them. I was paying my corps members’ doctors about N100,000 in the riverine areas. I paid N70,000 to those in the upland. My engineers were getting N50,000 and my lawyers N50,000.

Was all this money coming from the FAAC?

It was part of FAAC but again I met an IGR of N30,000 as of October 30, 2008, but when I left in 2014, I left an IGR of N24m per month. So, we were able to grow the IGR.

What was the secret?

It was just by plugging wastage. You plug off wastage and concentrate. You have consultative meetings with people. I was free to be healthy. We delivered over 3,000 babies. We gave free drugs to people from zero to 16 years as well as 60 and above. We gave free 600 JAMB forms every year for six years. We also gave free 500 GCE forms for six years.

How can the new local government chairmen learn this?

If they would permit me, they could go to my YouTube and type Comrade Ayodele Adewale’s positive impacts and look at the documentary that was packaged when I was in government and two years of my administration as well as my six years in office. Certainly, they will get a lot of tips on how to grow the local government.